Many Black women are united in their textured hair and share the experience of sitting in a salon for hours just to have their hair styled. Add normal travel times, plus Atlanta traffic and the entire day has fizzled out like a blowout on a rainy day.
It is, however, possible to have your hair done by a licensed stylist according to your schedule and in your own home, where it is probably most convenient for you.
Colour, which officially launched last month, is an app that allows metro Atlanta women the opportunity to schedule a hair styling appointment from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. seven days a week.
In three clicks, women can expect licensed stylists who have been properly vetted via background checks to arrive at their home ready to do everything from a blowout or press-and-curl to halo braids or a menu of custom options.
Colour, created by Debra Shigley, a former fashion editor and attorney, was inspired by her own experiences. "I was scheduled to appear on television for a week in New York City, but I lived in Atlanta. My first thought was 'What about my hair?'" Shigley says, laughing. "I decided to have my hair set in Atlanta and preserved the style by keeping in rollers. I realized then that women should be able to go from city to city without worrying about their hair."
The idea of developing a product that made hair styling easier for Black women was launched even before her editorial career. As an undergraduate at Harvard University, Shigley, along with Jennifer Hyman, CEO of Rent the Runway, wrote a story for the university's paper about on-campus beauty ideals. Shigley recalls one interviewee commenting on how different the world would be if other women went to salons to have their hair teased, manipulated and chemically treated to look like an Afro the way Black women did to have their 'do straightened.
Fast forward years later—after Shigley's own training at a beauty school to make she knew the ins and outs of the business—and Colour comes along, which she appropriately dubs "Uber for Black hair."
"Doing Black hair is not such a hard thing or magical technique," Shigley says. "But, we have been programmed to believe that. It's really a stylist's lack of knowledge."
Women will not have to worry about the stylists' expertise of Black hair; each one is trained in hair styling and maintenance techniques via a special program Shigley created. "Colour is the conduit to having wonderful, beautiful hair that is personalized and convenient", she says.
While Colour was developed with women of color in mind, clients span the spectrum and stylists know how to do their hair too.
Ready to have your mane maintained or runway ready? Download the app and select a service; a single option is $65 and the one month unlimited appointment package is $200. The latter option means Black women can work out and swim all month long and still have hair that looks salon-finished.
Colour is currently only available in Atlanta, but Shigley plans to expand to D.C., Chicago, Houston and Brooklyn.
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